I am a Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies at Brock University and I hold the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work and Care. Prior to coming to Brock, I was a faculty member of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Carleton University for 13 years and at Saint Mary’s University (Sociology and International Development Studies) for 3 years. I hold Adjunct Professor positions at Carleton University and the University of Victoria.
My scholarly training, gained through both my academic studies and my work outside academia, is deeply interdisciplinary and with a strong focus on social justice. My degrees are a BA in Political Science (York University), with concentrations in social and political thought and international development studies (and many courses in Creative Writing); an MA in International Development Studies (Carleton University) with a thesis on the Nicaraguan revolution; and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. (Cambridge University, Social and Political Sciences) on gender equality, gender differences, and gender divisions of housework and care in British households (funded by a Commonwealth and SSHRC doctoral scholarships).
Prior to and after my MA studies, I worked in South America (primarily in Mexico and Bolivia) for six years (in total), mainly as a participatory research facilitator in water supply and sanitation projects for the United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNICEF) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Those years sowed the seeds of my future research on questions of knowing from marginalized spaces and subjectivities, my contributions to feminist methodologies and epistemologies, and to visual, participatory, narrative, and creative methodologies.
All of my research and writing embraces my intertwined preoccupation with the empirical, methodological, epistemological, ontological, and the conceptual, as well as my abiding interest in strong, argumentative, and beautiful writing that builds respectfully on an eclectic mix of intellectual ancestors and mentors. In recent years, one of the most meaningful aspects of my academic life has been the opportunity to learn from, and mentor, a new generation of diverse scholars, including researchers from Indigenous, Black Canadian, and LGBTQ backgrounds.
Ph.D., Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge University
MA, International Development Studies, Carleton University
BA, Political Science (Political Theory) York University